In Mead v. Rockford Public School District, (WD MI, Aug. 7, 2026), a Michigan federal district court granted a motion for reconsideration of its earlier decision which held that parents' free exercise rights are not violated by a school's policy that encourages teachers and staff to use a student's preferred name and pronouns and does not necessarily require disclosure of this to the student's parents. The court relied on the Supreme Court's shadow docket opinion in Mirabelli v. Bonta in granting reconsideration. The court said in part:
Like the policies at issue in Mirabelli, the policies here likely created a substantial burden on the Meads’ free-exercise rights. The Meads share religious beliefs similar to the parents in Mirabelli about the permanency of biological sex and the fixed relationship between sex and gender. At the time of the alleged violation, the Meads’ child was also around the same age (seventh and eighth grades) as one of the children in Mirabelli (eighth grade). And like the parents in Mirabelli, the Meads did not have an opportunity to opt their child out of Defendants’ policies.
Defendants’ policies therefore trigger strict scrutiny....
ADF issued a press release announcing the decision.